Youth Zones Receive Mentoring Investment

Building on the investment made by Porticus into the OnSide Network Mentoring Programme, OnSide has secured £120k of investment from The Careers & Enterprise Company to support 258 young people in Greater Manchester.

The investment will go towards helping our Greater Manchester Youth Zones, including Bolton Lads and Girls Club, The Factory (Manchester), Mahdlo (Oldham) and Wigan Youth Zone, scale up their employer mentoring programme, working with students who are about to start their GCSEs, but are at risk of disengaging and dropping out of school.

In total, the government-backed Careers & Enterprise Company will distribute funding worth more than £3.5million to 39 mentoring organisations across the country, targeting almost 20,000 pupils and we have been lucky enough to receive some of this to expand our mentoring offer at four of our Youth Zones.

Helen Taylor, OnSide Network Director said: “Young people face a number of challenges as they move into adulthood and mentoring offers them someone to talk to, who will listen without judgement or criticism. Young people need positive role models in their life to provide encouragement, advice and guidance and help them make positive progression in line with their personal goals.”

 Claudia Harris, CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “Too many young people across England are at risk of not achieving their full potential. This can have a lasting impact on their future and career later in life.

“Employer mentoring is a powerful way to address this issue by helping young people get inspired about the world of work.

“Our fund will work to unlock this inspiration by scaling up proven mentoring programmes to help boost social mobility and give young people great life changing experiences.

 “I would encourage anyone who wants to get involved in mentoring to step forward and join this mentoring movement and make a real difference to the lives of young people in their local community.”

For more information on the Company’s mentoring campaign visit www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/mentoring